Exodus 1-3

Starting out in Exodus, we read about how time passes and there is a new king who doesn't remember Joseph.  Worried about these Israelites, he sets taskmasters over them making them slaves.  As another precaution, he has all their baby boys killed to keep a man from rising up among them to oppose him.  However, we learn of the midwives who do not listen and save the babies.  As a result, God deals well with the midwives.

Moses is born and his mother hides him so that he is not killed.  Eventually, she cannot hide him and sets him to float in a basket on the river bank with his sister watching from a distance.  Pharaoh's daughter finds him, takes pity on him and takes him as her own.  He grows up and sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew.  He kills the Egyptian but eventually this is found out and Moses flees.

In Midian, he saves the daughters of the priest of Midian from shepherds and he is taken in by them.  He is given Zipporah as a wife and has a son named Gershom.  Back in Egypt, the Israelites are groaning over their tough labor.  Chapter 2 ends with God hearing their groaning and remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Now was the time for God to act.

The famous burning bush is in chapter 3 and God speaks to Moses.  Moses is being sent to save his people.  Moses questions choosing him and is reassured that God will be with him.  When asking who to say sent him and what is his name, he is told to say "I Am" has sent you.  God's title of "I Am" is found here in chapter 3.  God is sending Moses and they will be brought up out of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, ther Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.  Pharaoh will not let them leave, but God will stretch out his hand to strike Egypt with wonders and then Pharaoh will let them leave.  They will ask for things as they leave and will not leave empty handed.  In so doing, they will plunder the Egyptians.

Why doesn't God just save his people?  Why does he have to go through all these plagues and signs and wonders?  Why did they need to be slaves in the first place?  Well, we read in Exodus 9, "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth".  This is all for God's name and his glory.  In any case, we see his plan and see what he is about to do.